Let’s Get Anthropomorphic!

Man, the good old days, right? The halcyon era of funny animal books where you couldn’t go to a decent comic rack without getting an eyeful of ferrets with chainguns or some such nonsense. I can’t fully dismiss this stuff, because Usagi Yojimbo has beenÂ consistentlyÂ readable for longer than most of the women I date have been alive. That said, any time a genre blows up, there are coattail riders and straight-up posers. See: zombie comics.

A good place to start is Albedo Anthropomorphics, a pioneer of the genre. This issue includes an early Usagi Yojimbo feature.

Here’s another series Stan Sakai used to get the Usagi name out before landing his own series.

Oddly, the longest-running of the funny animal comics is the one where the animals have sex. Here’s issue 51 or, the cover art from issue 51… I can’t tell based on this really half-assed Ebay listing.

If Ninja Turtles weren’t tongue-in-cheek enough for your liking, you always had the option of Boris the Bear. He sort of sucked, but there must have been something about him that stood out from the pack because he had his own book for longer than most.

If you really can’t get enough animals with hands, here’s some unfunny crap that actually managed to sell a decent grip of books back in the day. This was a parody of TMNT… which was a parody itself… so that makes this a parody of a parody… or, more succinctly, garbage.

Finally, if you needed proof of the enduring popularity of anthropomorphic animal books, here’s the nu version. It reads like a classroom of seventh graders collaborated on a fantasy book after watching the first 15min of Lord of the Rings, but it does have vermin with swords so there will always be a market for it. Also, check out this dude selling comics he got for free TWO DAYS AGO for a Buy It Now over $10. Nice hustle, jerk.